Happy Valley isn't the only place where students dance for a cause.

Last year, Penn State's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon raised about $4.2 million for the Four Diamonds Fund. But various schools around the mid-Atlantic region hold events similar to Thon to also raise money for children with cancer.

Similar to Penn State's event, the University of Pittsburgh holds a 24-hour dance marathon each December to raise money for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"At Pitt, each organization that participates sponsors a dancer, and along with the dancer the organization must also sponsor five moralers," said Lindsey Sorber, president of the Panther Pitt, an organization that participates in the event. "The dancer is required to dance or be on the dance floor for the full 24 hours, and the job of the moraler is to bring the dancer anything they need such as water or a snack and also to be a source of energy for the dancer."

She added that a morale dance, much like Thon's line dance, is performed once an hour to keep the dancers enthused.

Sorber said the event was part of their greek week and modeled after Thon.

"The hope for the future is that it will no longer be a greek event, but will be something that is represented by the regular student body and its organizations with the greeks solely being participants, instead of the main participants," she said.

Their dance marathon was first held in 2005 and raised $38,000. This past December it raised $56,000, Sorber said.

Rutgers University also holds its own dance marathon each spring. Its 32-hour dance marathon is scheduled for March 24 and 25.

For the 2007 event, Rutgers has set a goal to have 300 dancers and 350 volunteers participate in the event.

"Each dancer raises a minimum of $250 in order to dance the full 32 hours," said Jill Vogel, director of the communications team.

The Rutgers dance marathon motto is also "For the Kids," but its event raises money for the nonmedical needs of patients at the Institute for Children with Cancer and Blood Disorders, Vogel said.

According to its Web site, Rutgers' dance marathon started in 1971, two years before Penn State held its first Thon. The original Rutgers Dance Marathon, which was started by members of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, raised about $18,000 for the American Cancer Society in its first year.

However, the event only lasted about 10 years. It resumed as an annual event in 1999.

Vogel said that in 2006, the event raised $186,665.77.

And as Penn State's Thon dancers catch up on sleep next week, the dancers at University of North Carolina will just be preparing to kick their event off.

UNC will hold its annual dance marathon from Feb. 23 to 24. It will last 24 hours, said Nikki Peters, public relations director for the event.

She said that the event is the culmination of a year-long fundraising event when students "stand to show support for children, their families and hospital staff."

Overall, about 1,500 students are involved as committee members and moralers and so far 850 dancers have signed up, Peters said.

The event raised $201,000 last year for the North Carolina Children's Hospital, Peters said. She added that she expects more money to be collected this year because dancers can now have donation Web sites.

While students from Commonwealth campuses can take part in Penn State's Thon, Peters said the UNC event is just Chapel Hill students. She added that UNC-Greensboro has its own dance marathon, but the events are not related.